David Cook's cancer-stricken brother to attend 'American Idol' show

By Christopher Rocchio, 04/14/2008

One of David Cook's biggest fans will have the opportunity to see the American Idol seventh-season finalist perform this week.

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Adam Cook -- David's 36-year-old brother who is undergoing chemotherapy for his second diagnosis of brain cancer, which has spread to his spine -- will be in Idol's studio audience this week thanks to charitable contributions from the community he calls home, the Terre Haute Tribune-Starreported Sunday.

"It has been an absolute whirlwind," Adam's wife Kendra -- who will accompany Adam -- told the Tribune-Star. "I'm so thrilled for Adam. It's been an awesome dream, an awesome goal, an awesome thought."

Adam had planned to travel the almost 2,000 miles from his Terre Haute, IN home to Hollywood to see David perform early last week, however those arrangements hit a major sticking point when doctors told him he could not fly commercially in his condition, the Tribune-Star reported.

However Adam apparently got by with a little help from his friends -- who rallied around him and gifted an all-expenses-paid flight on a chartered medical jet, a flight medic and nurse, and a paid stay in a hotel across the street from CBS Television City where Idol films, according to the Tribune-Star.

The plan didn't come together until Friday afternoon when the Indianapolis-based Board of Directors at Clarian Health agreed to pay the estimated $78,000 bill for the trip, according to the Tribune-Star. In addition, Terre Haute radio station B102.7 is paying for Adam's Hollywood hotel.

"It's been a cooperative effort from coast to coast," Crossroads Communication's Julie Henricks told the Tribune-Star about the contributions.

Adam and Kendra then had two days to arrange for their 5- and 6-year-old children to be cared for before departing Sunday morning.